


This Isn't Oz, And You Sure As Hell Aren't Dorothy

by gilligankane



Category: Guiding Light
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-12
Updated: 2009-08-12
Packaged: 2017-11-17 09:46:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/550246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You can’t name him after me,” Olivia insists, still in the car. “Yes I can,” Natalia insists. “Although, if you really have a problem with it…” “I do!” Olivia and Frank both shout.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Isn't Oz, And You Sure As Hell Aren't Dorothy

It’s love at first sight.

She names him  _Spencer_ , because  _Oliver_  was the name of the kid who got bullied back in Chicago when she was just a little girl, and even if it’s close to _Olivia_ , she just can’t put that kind of predestined doom on him.

So Spencer it is.

It’s as close to Olivia as she’ll get anyway.

\---

Frank holds him at arm’s length, like he’s afraid he’s suddenly going to contract a disease and the voice in the back of her head taunts him:  _then you would really have an excuse to never work_.

She finds it entertaining that Spencer managed to end up with green eyes – Lord knows how, but he did – and that Frank refuses to look into them, as if he’s afraid Spencer will try to use “Jedi mind control” on him.

It sounds stupid and it should; Frank’s the one who says it, under his breath, every time Spencer even  _glances_  in his direction.

She married a  _sissy_.

But she smiles anyway and ignores Frank, choosing to dote on Spencer instead. She dotes on him so much it puts the amount she spoiled Rafe to shame.

Rafe, like Frank, stares at Spencer with wide eyes, as if the little guy is going to launch himself across the room and attack her oldest son.

If Spencer attacked Frank, she might not mind that much.

Rafe? Well, she might be okay with that too.

\---

“Hey there baby,” she coos at him. He gives her something of a smile and Frank kind of whimpers from across the kitchen table.

She resists the urge to roll her eyes.

“Mom,” Rafe tries. “Ma, he’s not…”

“Eat your peas Rafael,” she snaps, running her hand across the top of Spencer’s tiny little forehead.

“But Ma…”

“But  _nothing_. Eat your peas.” Rafe lets his mouth hang open only for a second until she glares at him pointedly, then he snaps it shut and sends a pleading look at Frank.

Frank just puts his hands up in defeat, mutters something that sounds like  _absolutely not_  and puts his plate in the sink. She hears him go up the stairs and the shower start and she hopes he doesn’t expect to get lucky tonight, because she’s not giving it up.

Not again.

Not  _ever_.

That one time – horrific as it was – was  _more_  than enough to fill her quota of bad sex for a lifetime.

“Oh Spencer,” she sighs as the kitchen clears out, leaving them by themselves. “What would I do without you.”

Spencer just kind of sneezes.

\---

He runs away when he’s a little older and it’s Emma, naturally, who finds him and brings him home, carrying him the way he should be carried.

 _Emma_  isn’t frightened of him.

She’s confused for sure, but she’s not even eleven yet, so Natalia dismisses it and asks where Olivia is.

Emma frowns and points back outside to the car running in the driveway.

And there she is, waiting impatiently in the driver’s seat with the window down, slapping her open palm against the car door like she’s trying to call Emma outside using Morse code.

“Olivia,” she says in such a sing-song, Julie Andrews circa  _The Sound Of Music_  voice that she flinches inwardly. “Olivia, this is Spencer.”

Olivia chokes on the air she’s breathing.

“ _Excuse_  me?”

Natalia just smiles happily and repeats herself.

“I, uh,  _what_?”

Frank nods solemnly from the front porch. “Yeah, I agree.”

“Shut up Frank,” Olivia and Natalia growl at the same time.

“You can’t name him after me,” Olivia insists, still in the car.

“Yes I can,” Natalia insists. “Although, if you really have a problem with it…”

“I do!” Olivia and Frank both shout.

“We could change his name and move to San Francisco and live in some purple house on a hill.”

Olivia’s mouth just hangs open and Frank sighs again, muttering again, leaving in defeat again.

“Jellybean, get in the car. I don’t want you catching the crazy.”

Emma nods, eyes wide, and doesn’t even say goodbye to Natalia.

Spencer sneezes again.

\---

Spencer crawls up into bed with her and Frank groans – or shrieks, maybe – and hurries out the other side, claiming that he’s awake for the day and he’s going to go fishing.

She doesn’t care.

It’s only 4 in the morning and she wonders why Spencer is even up, but she doesn’t ask him. She just pulls him into her side and settles back under the covers.

Just her and her little guy.

\---

“Is she coming around?”

“Guys, give her some space.”

“Jesus Frank, back the  _hell_  up.”

There are black shapes she assumes to be bodies, hovering over her.

And she’s on the ground.

Which is never a good thing, if she thinks about it.

Doris is kneeling by her head, her cool Mayor hands brushing back the hair strewn across her face.

“Doris?” she asks, her voice cracking in the middle of the question.

“Well hey there,” Doris greets her gently. “That was some drop you took.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Olivia is standing on the outside of the hover-ers, pacing back and forth nervously.

“Drop?” She tries sitting up, but Doris just kind of pushes her back down.

Frank’s face is suddenly very, very close to her own and she pulls back, but the ground is in her way. “Baby, are you alright?”

Doris groans. “Frank, back  _up_ ,” she growls. “How about giving her a little room to breathe?”

“Spencer,” Natalia says in an exhale. “Where’s Spencer?”

“ _Who_?” Olivia asks from the outer edge. “Who is  _Spencer_?”

Natalia blinks a couple of time and finally pulls herself up into a sitting position. Or, rather,  _Doris_  pulls her up and Natalia just plays rag doll perfectly.

“Spencer,” she repeats. “Short brown hair, green eyes, cute as a button – Spencer?”

Olivia looks behind her to see if Emma is anywhere near.

But the little girl is on the other side of the yard, drenching Bill with a water gun.

“Natalia, I…” Olivia turns to Doris. “How hard did she get hit?”

“I got hit?” Everyone’s eyes – everyone: Doris, Blake, Rick, Frank, Olivia, Matt, Josh – spin back to Natalia sitting on the grass in the Bauer’s backward.

“With the Frisbee,” Doris says slowly. “You came sprinting into the yard like your heels were burning and it collided with the back of your head.” The Mayor chuckles. “You went down harder than…right,” she trails off at Olivia’s glare.

“I thought you were leaving,” Blake accuses from somewhere on her right.

“You were  _leaving_?” Olivia screeches on her left.

“I came back,” she says defensively, shaking her head lightly. “It was the strangest thing…”

“Well, you’re okay now,” Frank manages to squeak out before Rick drops a large hand onto the Detective’s shoulder and steers him over to the pool, putting him on lifeguard duty.

“I was married to Frank,” Natalia continues, ignoring everyone’s blatant cringes and shudders. “And we had Spencer and, and  _you_!” She points at Olivia who flinches back a little. “You thought I was  _crazy_.”

“I still do,” Olivia mutters. Doris elbows her in the rib. “I mean,  _wait_. You had a  _kid_  with Frank? And you named him  _Spencer_?”

Natalia frowns. “ _No_ ,” she hisses. “Spencer was our dog.”

And she thinks Olivia would be relieved, but Olivia just looks angry. “ _You named a dog after me_?”

“I thought it was a good idea,” she says lamely.

“You thought sleeping with Frank was a good idea! You, you can’t be trusted to think!” Olivia growls and shakes. “Oh, get up. We’re going home. And I’m locking you inside the farmhouse.”

“Are you going to be locked inside there with me?”

Olivia gapes at her. “Are you… _yes!_  You think I’m going to leave you in there by yourself? You might have a concussion, to begin with. Secondly, who knows what other type of animal you’ll name after me.”

Natalia is lifted to her feet by numerous hands – none of them Frank’s thank  _God_  – and tossed gently into Olivia’s arms. She feels her whole body just melt into the other woman’s, fusing together like gin and vermouth.

“Just be glad I didn’t name him Oliver.”

Olivia frowns, her nose scrunching in a way that Natalia knows means  _yeah me too_.

“How about we just steer clear of animals?”

Natalia nods sleepily and shuffles further into Olivia’s arms, taking in the warmth of the other woman’s skin and the security in her muscles.

Suddenly, Natalia gasps, and Olivia flinches so hard, Natalia ends up back on the ground.

“What? What?”

She just stares up at Olivia and feels her eyes burning and she tries to choke back the tears welling up and closing her throat.

“But the ducks…”

Olivia groans.

“Are you ser – oh my God, you are.”

“Olivia, where are you going?” Because Olivia is walking through the yard and she’s still sitting with her backside on the wet lawn. “Hey, Olivia?”

“Think she’ll get rid of the ducks?” Doris asks, trying to casually ignore Blake hanging off of her shoulder, breathing into her neck.

Blake nods, her chin digging into the shoulder pad of Doris’s blazer. “Either the ducks or Natalia.”

“Eh.” Doris shrugs. “My money’s on the ducks.”

“If you lose, you’re buying me dinner. If you win, I buy.”

Doris blinks.

“Deal.”

They shake on it and Olivia hollers for Natalia to get off her ass and in the car.

Doris hopes that Blake can afford a nice steak dinner.


End file.
